Madame Beudet's sunny smile

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Movie
German title Madame Beudet's sunny smile
Original title La souriante Madame Beudet
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1923
length 773 meters, at 18 frames per second about 38 minutes
Rod
Director Germaine Dulac
script Germaine Dulac
production Charles Delac ,
Marcel Vandal
camera Maurice Forster ,
Paul Parguel
occupation

Madame Beudets sunny smile (in the original French La souriante Madame Beudet , German alternative title: The smile of Madame Beudet ) is a French avant-garde film by Germaine Dulac from 1923, produced by Charles Delac and Marcel Vandal with their film company Colisée Films. Dulac also wrote the script, based on a play by Denys Amiel and André Obey . The film is considered to be one of the first feminist silent films in film history .

action

Madame Beudet lives with her husband, a cloth merchant, in the French provinces. Her married life is monotonous and empty, so that she takes refuge in daydreams. While she is more withdrawn, artistic and sensitive, Monsieur Beudet is a raw nature without much sensitivity, who likes to bring out the “gentleman in the house”.

When Madame Beudet once refused to go to a performance of “Faust” with him because she noticed that her husband was only interested in the play the blonde Gretchen, he took the piano key with him into the theater instead of her, so that she could not play - as punishment for their insubordination.

Madame Beudet's husband also has a strange sense of humor. He hides an unloaded revolver in the desk drawer, which he holds to his head every now and then when he wants to scare his wife, as if to shoot himself.

One day Madame Beudet can no longer bear this provocation. She secretly sticks a cartridge into the drum of his revolver. But the next day she is sorry again and tries to unload the gun again, but she does not succeed. The next time her husband did not point the barrel of the revolver at his head, as usual, but at her and then pulled the trigger, the shot went off. Fortunately, he doesn't meet her, just a vase. Now it is Monsieur Beudet who thinks his wife wanted to commit suicide. He confesses to her: "How should I be able to live without you?"

The last scene shows Madame Beudet walking in silence down the street with her husband. Again the couple falls back into their daily routine.

background

The play on which the film is based premiered on April 16, 1921 at the Nouveau Théâtre in Paris. The co-author André Obey was responsible for the cinematographic adaptation. Kurt Tucholsky mentions the play in his essay "Der General in der Comédie", which he published as Ignaz Wrobel in Die Weltbühne .

The film was made between 1921 and 1922, but was not shown in Paris until November 9, 1923 . In Germany, the film had its premiere on June 28, 1976 at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival . There it was shown at the 7th International Forum of Young Films in the “Atelier am Zoo” cinema.

Reviews (selection)

The film was discussed by Emile Vuillermoz in Le Temps on February 19, 1923: “The film is an extraordinary challenge compared to the good tradition of our studios. It lacks the plot in the sense that our directors understand it. It only contains a series of psychological observations, of ruthless precision, but of a subtlety that cannot be conveyed with traditional film language. "

Albert Bonneau wrote in Cinémagazine (Paris), No. 26 of June 29, 1923: “The famous play by Denys Amiel and André Obey could not be better adapted for the screen. Certain pictures are enjoyed for the sake of humor, others because the intense feelings contrast best with the irony. The interpretation is remarkable: Germaine Dermoz plays her role with great talent. Arquillière played a Beudet in the best tradition of Balzac people. The always amusing Madeleine Guitty and the excellent actor Jean d'Yd have created two extremely humorous characters. "

Jean de Mirbel wrote in Cinémagazine (Paris), No. 45 of December 9, 1923: “A great actress had to be found in order to make the various emotions of Madame Beudet visible. It's Madame Dermoz, the choice of the director couldn't be better. In her role as a misunderstood, vengeful wife, this beautiful interpreter has created a figure who is one of the most outstanding on our canvases. Arquillère turns Beudet into a picturesque sight. The always amusing Madeleine Guitty, Jean d'Yd and Mademoiselle Grisier play the three supporting roles with great sensitivity. Very daring camera shots and directing, excellent presentation and the conscientious adaptation made the film La Souriante Madame Beudet a success, a success for Germaine Dulac and also for Louis Aubert, who had the excellent idea to bring this film out. "

The critic of the Kinemathek (No. 93, vol. 39, October 2002) wrote: “Through style-conscious experimentation with an abundance of cinematic techniques, ranging from cross-fades, fade-outs to penetrate the plot, the use of soft focus, double and multiple exposures for time-lapse and slow-motion recordings, accelerated montage, dramatic light effects, image masking, distorted lenses and other manipulations, it visually builds up an extremely dynamic mood to represent Mme. Beudet's world of imagination. "

Re-performances

After the film was restored by the Dutch Film Museum in 2000 , it was shown again on February 9, 2007 at the Berlin International Film Festival. Arte broadcast the film on April 21, 2006 in the restored version and with new accompanying music by Manfred Knaak , interpreted by the ensemble Kontraste . In 2007 the film was shown at the StummFilmMusikTage in Erlangen , also with the music of Manfred Knaak.

literature

  • Denys Amiel, André Obey: La souriante madame Beudet: pièce en deux actes. (= Collection nouvelle de La France dramatique. Volume 7). Verlag Stock, 1920, OCLC 901879046 .
  • Wheeler W. Dixon, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (Eds.): Experimental Cinema: The Film Reader. New edition. Psychology Press, 2002, ISBN 0-415-27786-8 , p. 109 to notes 14-21.
  • Sandy Flitterman: Montage / Discourse. Germaine Dulac's The smiling Madame Beudet. In: Wide Angle. 4, No. 3, 1980, pp. 54-59.
  • Sandy Flitterman-Lewis: To Desire Differently. Feminism and the French cinema. University Of Illinois Press, Urbana 1990, ISBN 0-252-01654-8 .
  • Friends of the German Kinemathek (ed.): Program “7. International Forum of Young Films / Berlin June 26th - July 3rd 1977 / Friends of the German Kinemathek, Berlin 30, Welserstraße 25 (arsenal cinema): Catalog pages for The Smiling Madame Beudet / The Shell and the Cleric ”, on line at (arsenal -berlin.de , as PDF [1977_GermaineDulac_2_01.pdf], 6.7 MB)
  • Sabine Nessel (ed.), Friends of the Deutsche Kinemathek eV (ed.): L'invitation au voyage, Germaine Dulac. International symposium "L'invitation au voyage - Germaine Dulac" (Frankfurt am Main): October 31 - November 3, 2002 (= Kinemathek. Issue 93). Friends of the German Kinemathek, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-927876-17-8 .
  • Dorothee Wenner: The mighty eye. Eccentric film pioneer Germaine Dulac is finally rediscovered. In: time online. October 31, 2002. (zeit.de)
  • William van Wert: Germaine Dulac, First Feminist Filmmaker. In: Women and Film. No. 5/6, (Berkeley) Santa Monica 1974.
  • Tami Michelle Williams: Beyond Impressions: The Life and Films of Germaine Dulac from Aesthetics to Politics. University of California, Los Angeles 2007, OCLC 301754227 .
  • Friedrich von Zglinicki: The way of the film. History of cinematography and its predecessors. Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin 1956, DNB 455810680 , pp. 478-479.

Web links

Illustrations:

  • Still images from the film at screenshotworld
  • Photo by Madame Dulac
  • Title page of Mon Ciné No. 88, October 25, 1923 with photo by Mme. Dulac

Items:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Williams pp. 238-239 and notes 158, 159.
  2. ↑ No. 18, of May 4, 1926, p. 703, cf. Article at Textlog.de.
  3. ↑ a b c cf. Program of the 57th Berlin International Film Festival: Retrospective “City Girls”, pp. 69–70. Translations from the French by Uta Orluc.
  4. ↑ Translation according to Kinemathek No. 9, cf. Madame Beudet's sunny smile. ( Memento from March 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at feature-film.org.
  5. ↑ Silent Film Music Days . ( Memento from May 28, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )